Don't know if you guys have heard, but Tidal is now using MQA to stream 24/96 titles. †If I understand the tech correctly I think these are 24/96 files packaged in a 16/44.1 MQS encoded container. †

If you have a "HIFI" account option these are available within your Tidal subscription. †At this time I think it's only available through the Tidal desktop app though. I don't think you can get to the Master albums through the OPPO Media Control App or any other apps I'm aware of right now.

In the Tidal desktop app go to >What's New >Albums >Masters

Not a whole lot of titles right now about 192 albums thus far, but there is a good selection of classic rock, classic jazz, pop and r&b.

Listening to Alice Cooper Billion Dollar Babies and I'm impressed, no hiccups or issues at all. †Internet streaming has just taken a great leap forward IMO.

That's pretty exciting! I run Tidal through Audirvana on a SSD Mac Mini. I can control it from my phone, so easy to find almost everything I have ever searched for. I get the hifi subscription for $5.00 a month because I signed up for Third Man Records Vault packages. I get a quarterly surprise record packages. Best of both worlds.

I am on the 3 month trial through the latest release of Audirvana. †I'm glad I didn't start the trial over the holidays. †I wouldn't have gotten anything done. †So many great albums and I haven't even searched for stuff I know yet.

I am streaming and upconverting to DSD in audirvana and no hiccups at all. 16/44 sounds pretty good.

@ Matchstickman ~ You are correct, the cost per month is $20 that includes access to the Hi-Res and CD quality titles. The catalog is extensive for CD level music, but at this time the 24/96 music that is available is limited to about 190+ albums thus far. I imagine this will continue to build over time now that streaming with the MQA tech is in full gear.

If you have a HIFI level subscription in Tidal I believe that all or most titles are at least CD quality. In comparison to other streaming services this is already a level above, but now you also have access to 190+ Hi-Res titles that I've already mentioned and although I haven't gone through all of them ~ they sound pretty impressive thus far IMO.

@ Finch ~ that's a great deal, I'm a fan of Jack's stuff ... I wish I had known about it, I may have signed up as well.

@ Pal ~ that's probably my next project as well, my current PC (although is chugging along) is great for simple streaming I need something more powerful to do that. I have been enjoying Tidal so much over the past year that I have not bought any vinyl lately or any hi-res downloads either. The sound is pretty satisfying to me and although I like to purchase music everything that I'm looking for is usually on Tidal anyways so I'm pretty content.

This is incredibly exciting! Finally. But, it is only available through the desktop application and not the Android app which is what is installed on my MQA enabled Onkyo DP-X1. Looking forward to streaming MQA from my Onkyo DAP to my ZDSD.

I have been streaming TIDAL for over a year now and for the most part really enjoy the experience. Music selection and SQ are all excellent.

I stream directly to the Bridge II in my DS Dac and the sound quality is excellent.

The controller I am currently using is Bubble UPnP. It's not the greatest interface, and the Samsung device I am using to run it (Bubble isn't available for iOS) is not even close to the user experience of an iPad.

I think my next upgrade for TIDAL streaming would be to move to Roon. From what I have seen, the overall user experience would be much improved vs Bubble UPnP. The PS Audio Bridge can now be used as a Roon endpoint, so it's just making the transition (along with the Roon expense). I think I paid $5 for the Bubble app and a lifetime Roon membership is $500. Will my experience be 100X better?

I moved away from having a computer hooked up directly to my DAC because I could never get it to sound great (or maybe I wasn't willing to put in the effort to make it sound great). Either way I don't think I am looking back. The Bridge II sounds great, and dedicated audio streamers have become quite popular Auralic Aries, Sonore MicroRendu, etc. I haven't tried these devices (aside from the Bridge), but I have read many good reviews. The Micro Rendu was on many a Best of 2016 list.

At this point, I can't take advantage of the MQA streaming, because I don't stream through the TIDAL desktop application. I'm sure they'll figure out the other interfaces at some point as you suggested Beowulf. Also, a MQA DAC is apparently necessary to take full advantage of the entire MQA process (ADAC-->Shell-->DAC).

I am curious how far MQA is going to go. There have been many that have spoken out against it, but if a significant number of record labels get on board, MQA may be inevitable. Is it possible that MQA could become the one single digital format?

Dave, I'm using Roon and I'm very happy with the SQ. It's at least as good as my highly (software) tweaked custom built PC - but the lifetime fee sucks bigtime. I had a discount code and opted to try Roon for one year - like you streamed to the Bridge II. It's super easy, sounds good, and I really like the biography features when you look up bands or artists. It looks through your music, and tags stuff with links back to your music which I find useful.

For example - I was listening to Bon Iver - the bio spoke of Justin Vernon (who pretty much *is* Bon Iver), but then mentioned he also sings on the Hadestown album by AnaÔs Mitchell. I love the Hadestown album and had no idea Vernon was on there and went for another listen and totally picked him out then. After that, I went back to the Justin Vernon bio and found a few other albums he made or contributed to and went further down the rabbit hole.

I find that super useful when you're looking for new music with a certain feel to it.

The random, or radio feature of Roon is good as well, though I find it seems to grab the same songs every damn time...with 105,000 tracks in my library, you'd think it would find more than the same dozen songs when I let it run Indy Folk Rock.

I've not delved into Tidal, but I believe Roon also has a tidal interface...not that I could afford both..I could barely afford a 1 year subscription! LOL

I'm looking to try Bughead software next (dedicated PC) and I'm considering trying HQplayer for upsampling like what Pal does...but I think HQplayer also integrates with Roon for more control over tweaking the sound stream!!

LR...thanks for your perspective on Roon. Based on your description, I would really enjoy the experience. I'm not sure why I have been dragging my feet.

I suspect it wouldn't take me too long to get things up and running. I need to update the Bridge II, the OS on the Mac I plan to run Roon server on, and then it's a matter of getting Roon installed and linked to my TIDAL account.

FWIW...we have similar taste in music. I was just listening to the latest Bon Iver album earlier this morning. It has really grown on me it's now my favorite Bon Iver album (2nd favorite is For Emma, Forever Ago...). I also enjoy his more obscure sounding Volcano Choir project and his presence on the Hadestown album. I'm sure there are other collaborations he has done, but I can't think of them right now. I bet Roon could help me out there!

Roon is exactly how I found out about Volcano Choir (which the latest Bon Iver album sounds a bit like). †I forgot to mention above, but was alluding to - when Roon looks through your archive, it will link you to other albums. So looking up Vernon, I saw it had Hadestown hyperlinked and brought up the bio and tracklist for Hadestown. As soon as I added a Volcano Choir album to my collection, that too hyperlinked. Very slick.

You're probably already there, but look into ALT-J as well - there first album has similar sonics to early Bon Iver, but less depressing. LOL

If you have any recommendations along the same lines, I'm all ears. I've grown very fond of this "Indy Folk Rock" genre

Roon does have a very seemless integration with Tidal from my understanding, but yeah $119 per year or $499 lifetime membership. $10 a month is not bad but paying it all at once kinda sucks ... I also think they should come down on the lifetime membership, something like $300 would be more reasonable.

Hadn't seen this thread until today.I've been posting some Tidal Masters albums in Lon's What's Spinning thread for about a week now.Enjoying the quality sound upgrade. :)Not sure of my actual sign up date (as soon as it went live in the US I think) but I've been using Tidal just for the ease of use and library access.No way I could afford to recover all the vinyl and CDs I wish I still owned but with Tidal I can relive my musical history back to the 60's easily.And the sound is much better than that I've-played-this-record-10,000-times vinyl!

And the sound is much better than that I've-played-this-record-10,000-times vinyl!

LOL, I've even worn out some CDs! Really, a combination of not handling carefully and the layers possibly deteriorating over 25 years. But still, I have CDs I had no choice but to purchase a replacement.

Just got back to this thread. I use Audirvana to upsample everything to DSD and can't really tell the difference between rips and streamed. Every once in a while I get a hiccup, but for the most part its pretty slick.

As an aside, I like Audivana now has the ability to level set all your music so no more getting up to adjust volume. I don't notice any degradation so this seems like a nice add.

And just in case you're thinking that sound quality may be brushed aside, there's this from the same press release:

The Sprint-TIDAL partnership comes on the heels of TIDALís recent announcement revealing the availability of ďMasterĒ quality recordings. A wide variety of content from labels and artists, including Warner Music Groupís world-renowned music catalogue, is now available in Master audio across all of TIDALís available markets worldwide.

According to Music Business Worldwide, that 33% piece cost Sprint "around $200M, valuing TIDAL at $600M." If you remember, Jay Z & Co. purchased Tidal for $56M just two short years ago.

I really need to get back into my digital setup and software. I've been so busy with other things in my life, my listening room, secondary listening room, diffusers, and Audio PC building has come to a complete halt.

Hopefully soon, especially since I still need to build diffusers for Axpona!